MEMO: The C[onservative] Team

MEMO: The C[onservative] Team

The Republican presidential field keeps getting wider, but not any deeper. Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson are set to announce their long-shot bids this week.

And although they're more likely to win FOX News contracts than the White House, each of these three candidates can and will have an impact on the contours of 2016 and the eventual GOP nominee. Look no further than Mitt "Self Deportation" Romney's lurch to the right in the previous presidential nominating contest -- one of  the weakest fields in quite some time.

Carson, Huckabee and Fiorina will have their moment in the sun and fire up base. When they do, the true contenders will have to react. Will Walker, Bush and Rubio lose the primary to win the general? If history is any indication, it is quite likely to be just the opposite.

When it comes to electability, these three may make the core of the C-Team, but they're also extremely and unabashedly conservative. Here's how we expect Huckabee, Carson and Fiorina to shift the wide field right.

MEMO: What you don’t know about the “Clinton Cash” author

The author of “Clinton Cash,” the latest conservative hatchet job against Hillary Clinton, is a right-wing Republican operative who was an advisor to Sarah Palin and a speechwriter for President George W. Bush. But what you might not know about Peter Schweizer is that he has deep ties to the Koch brothers and the right-wing billionaire bankrolling Sen. Ted Cruz’s nascent campaign. He’s a current contributor to conservative blog Breitbart and is the president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI). “Clinton Cash” has already been repeatedly debunked by reporters given early access to the accusations, which is no surprise given Schweizer’s history as a conservative researcher peddling misleading and false attacks that have discredited his work. American Bridge today released a video of FOX, ABC, NBC, and MSNBC anchors confronting Schweizer during his media blitz with the pesky fact that he doesn’t have any evidence for his theories.

Chris Christie needs to come clean on Bridgegate involvement

Brad Woodhouse, President, American Bridge 21st Century:

"Chris Christie's administration sought political retribution by forcing thousands of New Jerseyans to endure hours of traffic, leaving students stranded on buses for their first day of school, and making it harder for EMTs and law enforcement to do their jobs. Now that one of Christie’s longtime allies, David Wildstein, has pled guilty and his close aide and a political appointee are getting indicted, the cloud swirling over Chris Christie is only getting thicker. Wildstein’s lawyer is adamant that Christie ‘knew of the lane closures as they occurred’ and that ‘evidence exists.’ Christie’s record low approval rating is going to tank further by the time this is over."

"Impressive Record of Public Whining"

Peter Schweizer claims he wrote Clinton Cash as "bipartisan citizen action" in the preface, but he has a history of making personal and erroneous attacks on the Clintons. In 2008, Schweizer released Makers and Takers, where he targeted Hillary Clinton, saying she had an "impressive record of public whining." He also said that the political couple was not charitable enough and that they were “preoccupied with material things.” Don't be fooled by his fake call for "government accountability," Schweizer is only interested in furthering his extreme conservative agenda.

If someone ever emails "time for traffic problems," don't respond

Top Chris Christie crony and former Port Authority political appointee David Wildstein -- a figure smack dab in the middle of the Bridgegate scandal that has bludgeoned Christie's presidential aspirations with a traffic cone -- is set to plead guilty to criminal charges as soon as tomorrow. Wildstein is infamous for his "Got it" response to the "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" email from Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Ann Kelly. If only he used a carrier pigeon... The slow drip of news that the federal prosecutor is looking into David Samson's potential extortion of United Airlines for his "chairman's flight" means that Christie's headache is far from over. Wait to see if Christie's New Jersey approval rating can fall any lower than 38 percent (lowest yet) due to what National Journal described as "endless scandal and economic stagnation back home."

It's Not Just Immigration and Common Core: NRO Hits Jeb on Puerto Rican Statehood

Jeb spent part of his trip to Puerto Rico reminiscing about drinking rum, but he's looking punch-drunk after adding two more positions to his growing list of problems with the Republican base. First, the editors of the National Review took him to task today for supporting Puerto Rican statehood:

If Puerto Rico became a state, its economy and culture would be incredible outliers: It is twice as poor as the poorest of the 50 states, and it would of course be the first Spanish-speaking one. Statehood would remove some of the competitive benefits the island currently enjoys — protection of the United States and its laws without paying income taxes, for instance — in exchange for an inordinately generous welfare state. (One important economic policy exported from the mainland, the federal minimum wage, is believed to have had devastating effects.) The territory is currently stuck in a deep economic malaise, driving large numbers of residents to emigrate, but what it needs is structural reform, not statehood. So what is Governor Bush thinking? In Washington, the issue has long been more of a Democratic cause — the state would be reliably blue — but some Republicans have warmed to the idea on political grounds, too, thinking it will win over Hispanic voters, especially the growing population of Puerto Ricans in Florida. Bush surely believes what he said (his brother was sympathetic, too), but if this is a political ploy, it’s an unwise one.

Any Port in a Storm? Portman Seeks Refuge from Record of Outsourcing American Jobs

If Rob Portman wants to remind us what a patent failure he was as United States Trade Representative under President George W. Bush, he's doing a "heckuva job." Portman is in the fight of political life this election cycle and he's making sure the hardworking men and women of Ohio know that he's on their side by cracking down on currency manipulation. “It is critical that any new trade agreement include effective tools to fight back against a practice that has resulted in the loss of millions of American jobs,” said Portman in a statement. It sure sounds like a reasonable message, if you completely ignore the messenger. Portman simply has no standing to talk about protecting American workers.

WisPolitics: $4.9 million in WEDC loans delinquent

Not only is Scott Walker's scandal-plagued, privatized job agency funding companies that are shipping Wisconsin jobs overseas, but it has a growing problem of loan delinquency. While Walker is out of state laying the groundwork for his presidential bid, his record as governor is crumbling beneath him at home. From WisPolitics.com:

The value of WEDC loans that are considered delinquent more than tripled in the last quarter. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. has been criticized for the number of delinquent loans in recent years. The numbers prepared for Thursday's board meeting show the value of those loans jumped from almost $1.3 million in the second quarter to $4.9 million.

National Journal: Walker’s lacking governing record is a disadvantage

While Scott Walker travels around the country trying out right wing sound bites for his presidential ambitions, he's letting his job responsibilities back home in Wisconsin fizzle out with layoffs on track to reach 10,000 this year -- the highest number since Walker took office. National Journal took a look at GOP governors running for president in 2016 and found that each -- especially Walker -- has had their popularity crater amid lackluster results. NJ asks, “Can you be disliked by a majority of your constituents back home and still make the case for being president?”

Scott Walker swings right to support gay marriage constitutional amendment

Scott Walker's in good company now that he supports a constitutional amendment to let states continue to ban marriage equality: Ted Cruz filed the same amendment. This move comes on the heels of Walker arguing to restrict legal immigration -- an extreme position that lines him up with Rick Santorum.